The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.26

c11.26

The Arctic theory, however, now throws quite a new light on these ancient traditions, Vedic as well as Roman; and if we take the *Gavâm-ayanam* of ten months and the old Roman year of ten months as relics of the period when the ancestors of both these races lived together within the circumpolar regions, there is no difficulty of explaining how the remaining days were disposed of. It was the period of the long night,—a time when Indra fought with Vala, to regain the cows imprisoned by the latter, and Hercules killed the giant Cacus, a three-headed fire-vomiting monster, who had carried off Hercules' cows and hid them in a cave, dragging them backwards in order that the foot-marks might not be traced. When the Aryan people migrated southwards from this ancient home they had to change this calendar to suit their new home by adding two more months to the old year. But the traces of the old calendar could not be completely wiped off, and we have still sufficient evidence, traditional or sacrificial, to warrant us in holding that a year of ten months followed by a night of two months was known in the Indo-Germanic period—a conclusion, which is further confirmed by Teutonic myths and legends, as explained by Prof. Rhys, whose views will be found summarised in a subsequent chapter.